SimCity needs Internet connection to save the game

Maxis revealed earlier this year that the upcoming SimCity game will require an allways-on Internet connection, but now new details arrive about how restrictive this requirement will be. In a Q&A session about the game on Reddit last Sunday, SimCity developers revealed that players who lose their connection mid-game will only be allowed "to play for as long as we can preserve your game state", a period that will "likely be minutes", and saving the game will be impossible without an Internet connection.

Electronic Arts said from the start that SimCity, the upcoming sequel to Will Wright’s seminal city building game, needs a persistent Internet connection to play. With just months to go before the game’s spring release, though, it’s becoming clearer just how stringent that online connection will be. Developer Maxis has confirmed that players won’t even be able to save their game without being connected to the developer’s servers.Members of SimCity’s development team engaged in a question and answer session about the game on Reddit last Sunday. One player concerned about the connection restrictions asked what would happen if they abruptly lost their connection mid-game. “What will happen to the game if I am playing and lose my Internet connection—Will the game still be playable and update the servers when my Internet connection resumes or will it pause and wait for the connection?” asked Reddit user human-error.Maxis responded that players who lose their connection mid-game will be allowed “to play for as long as we can preserve your game state” a period that will “likely be minutes.”Put another way, if a user is playing SimCity using an unstable web connection, they are at risk from losing progress in the game simply because their connection dropped out.In March, Maxis’ Stone Librande said that SimCity needed a constant Internet connection due to multiplayer features of the game, in particular the global Sim economy that reflects every player’s city. The rigid nature of the persistent connection, to the extent that the game can’t be saved if the player loses their Internet connection, suggests that EA is also trying to prevent SimCity from being pirated.Piracy is no laughing matter for Electronic Arts. To put things in perspective: The video game industry generated $50 billion in revenue worldwide in 2011. PC gaming in particular was responsible for a significant chunk of that revenue, more than $18 billion to be precise. Electronic Arts is a leader in the field, developing games to pull revenue from both the console and PC space. Battlefield 3, Crysis 3, Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age III—Most of its marquee titles are meant for both the living room and the PC monitor gamer.SimCity on the other hand is a PC-only title, and even though sales are expected to be good, Electronic Arts doesn’t want any revenue to slip through the cracks. A Cowen & Company analyst pegs SimCity’s retail sales at around 500,000 copies this spring in addition to digital sales through EA’s Origin and other outlets like Steam. If EA isn’t careful, though, it will alienate players enough with these restrictions that they’ll simply seek out readily available older editions of SimCity to play, meaning less revenue for EA in the short term and a missed opportunity to re-establish a major PC brand.

SimCity disasters trailer revealed - 10/23/2012 06:34 AM
EA published a new SimCity gameplay trailer that shows off how to deal with disasters like tornadoes, meteorites, earthquakes and UFO attacks. This new PC and Mac game is expected to hit retail shelves in February 2013. Video after the break.

#4484307 Posted on: 12/21/2012 11:31 AM
I might get another warning for this but i don't care..

RIP Sim City. **** YOU EA, **** YOU VERY MUCH!

H83
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#4484327 Posted on: 12/21/2012 12:03 PM
Well i guess i wont buy the new SimCity after all...

Too bad, i was really looking forward for this game...

snorge
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#4484335 Posted on: 12/21/2012 12:12 PM
What kind of pc gamer doesn't have a fairly stable internet connection in the first place?

Silent_Takedown
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#4484387 Posted on: 12/21/2012 01:32 PM
Well that's a terrible idea.

nhlkoho
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#4484390 Posted on: 12/21/2012 01:34 PM

What kind of pc gamer doesn't have a fairly stable internet connection in the first place?

That's what I'm wondering. Everyone is complaining about this but in reality it won't affect any of you.

PhazeDelta1
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#4484391 Posted on: 12/21/2012 01:37 PM
My life will officially be over with when this game gets released.

iancook221188
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#4484396 Posted on: 12/21/2012 01:43 PM
this is why i don't play many new game any more im no longer going to buy this, **** off EA

Denial
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#4484399 Posted on: 12/21/2012 01:47 PM

That's what I'm wondering. Everyone is complaining about this but in reality it won't affect any of you.

Why? What if I want to play on my laptop while traveling? What happens in a few years when they shut down the servers, like "The Saboteur" which rendered the entire game useless? What then? Plus there are tons of people here who talk about how their ISP's have data caps, which this just helps reach.

It's bull****. It does absolutely nothing other then be another barrier I have to face when I go to play a game. I don't want it and I'm not going to play the game for it. Even if a pirated version comes out, I don't want to even give them an excuse in the future, I just don't want to deal with that bull****.

russ1
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#4484405 Posted on: 12/21/2012 01:53 PM

What kind of pc gamer doesn't have a fairly stable internet connection in the first place?

Most countries outside the western world.

daffy101
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#4484408 Posted on: 12/21/2012 01:59 PM
If the game is decent then yes i will buy it. I am not concerned if you need a permanent internet connection, you need one for MMO's so why not this? If it limits pirating and convinces EA its worth doing lets hope they do it with all new games if it gives us better games.

Denial
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#4484421 Posted on: 12/21/2012 02:09 PM

If the game is decent then yes i will buy it. I am not concerned if you need a permanent internet connection, you need one for MMO's so why not this? If it limits pirating and convinces EA its worth doing lets hope they do it with all new games if it gives us better games.

You seriously don't see the difference between an MMO and SimCity? You need one for MMO's because it's integral to the game design. Sim City has and should always be a single player game. If it has a multiplayer component, then obviously it's going to need an internet connection for that. But why is it required for me to build my city by myself?

It doesn't limit pirating, all it does is create bull**** for me, someone who buys the game.

#4484438 Posted on: 12/21/2012 02:41 PM
Yes its really crap, perhaps they will reconcider and make it a cloud save or something.
Dont know if people werent expecting to play this game in single player mode though since its built for multiplayer.